Iain Martin’s newsletter There has been a terrible falling out at OpenAI, the leading company researching Artificial Intelligence. The Financial Times published a detailed long read on the row this weekend. I’ll try to summarise it in a paragraph or two and then explain why we should be worried about what it means. Sam Altman, the 38 year-old founder of OpenAI, was fired by the company’s board for failing to alert it to a substantial and potentially dangerous breakthrough in research. This caused a sensation in the tech world. OpenAI staff and major investor Microsoft rebelled and demanded Altman’s reinstatement. Altman was reinstated. The board was fired.
The poor optics of Starmer’s gift taking
It was a mistake for Sir Keir and Lady Starmer to accept gifts from Lord Alli. But not for the reason you may think.